Osteoporosis Awareness

October the 20th is National Osteoporosis Awareness Day, so this blog will be telling you everything you need to know about Osteoporosis: how it affects people, who it affects and how exercise has an effect and can help those suffering with the condition.

How common is Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a condition affecting over 3 million people across the UK. More than 500,000 people a year have to go to the hospital for treatment because of injuries caused by Osteoporosis. It’s most common in post-menopausal women, as it affects half of all women over 50, but it’s a condition that can occur in men and women or any age. It’s usually caused by a lack of calcium in the diet, but in women, it’s more often caused by a lack of Oestrogen production as ladies reach menopause age.

What is Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis literally means ‘Porous Bones’, it causes the person suffering with it to lose bone density, creating a honey-comb like structure where there should be solid bone. This makes the bones in the body very fragile and prone to compression fractures, in the worst cases, they can even suffer from micro-fractures from the person sneezing. For most, it can be avoided by maintaining a healthy amount of calcium in your diet, as the body needs calcium to make more bone and Osteoporosis is caused because your body is not making enough bone material. But there are also ways exercise can help.

How does Pilates affect Osteoporosis?

Doing weight-bearing exercise is very important to help build bone density.
On Tuesday 20th October, we at The Pilates Rooms will be holding an osteoporosis workshop.
This is to help raise awareness of the condition and to help provide you with exercises that can help with the condition. We will also show you the exercises that you should avoid.
We look forward to seeing you there.